Dave Pykari Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 HI Everyone, Which steel type would you recommend for forging a hammer head ? 1060 ? 4330 ? 4140 ? 1045? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Good Morning,David Please put your area where you make shadows, in your Avatar. There are people from all walks of life and most countries of this world. You don't have to be specific, just your town is good. There is probably someone close to you, that can help you on your Journey. It is way more gooder (LOL) to put in time with someone else, who has already started down the road. Every 2 Blacksmith's will give 3 or 4 answers and the reason's why, to support their thoughts. 1045 is considered 'Shaft Material' that is, shafting for machinery. I have been using 1045 for Hammer Heads, with all the different Classes that I teach. It is water hardening and water quench for the Temper. I have only had one student break a Hammer Head and that was because he hardened the eye of the hammer. Most Breaker Bits are 1045 to 1060, I also use water to harden and Temper (straw colour). They also make great Hammer Heads. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Good to have you. I'm going to give you a good lawyer answer to your query on hammer heads: It depends. For some uses you will want a soft face on the hammer. In others hard is best. Generally, for forging you need something harder than the hot metal. Hardness becomes an issue if you miss a blow and strike the anvil face. If the anvil is harder than the hammer it will distort or mar the hammer and vice versa. I agree with Swedefiddle that usually a mid level carbon steel will be a good compromise between hardness and toughness. If either your hammer or anvil face is too hard you risk either being brittle and sending high speed shards of sharp steel flying around your shop and if they hit you letting out the red stuff inside. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 The few times I've done it, I used a mid-carbon steel and they held up well. Say 40 to 60 points of carbon. Most of the ones you suggest would work fine for that, except maybe the one with 30 points of carbon which might be a bit soft. I did have one crack at the eye, made from a very old piece of axle found on the backside of an old farm. That's how I found out that heat treatment for thin pieces of mystery steel (a small test coupon made for that purpose) don't always work the same as heat treatment for thick pieces of mystery steel. But a pretty good lesson learned for only a few hours of work lost. And the rest of the axle was fantastic for busting up rocks at the bottom of post-holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 I'll give you the metallurgy perspective: All the grades will perform equally well. They will all get hard enough for a hand hammer. The choice really comes down to what you can get and what resources you have for heat treatment. If you are buying new steel, 4330 will be the most expensive. 1045 will probably be the cheapest. 1045 is probably the lest likely to crack in hammer-section sizes and should be water quenched. They will all respond about the same to tempering. I'd suggest 450-475 F for 30 minutes per inch of maximum thickness. For a typical 2-3 pound hammer 1-2 hours should be fine. I would be sure to temper as soon as you are done with the quench. I would avoid stamping a makers mark in if you are going to heat the entire hammer to the critical temperature and quench. If you are able to heat just the faces (both at the same time) and quench then you could stamp in a region that will not be above critical. I have seen cracks originate in these kinds of stamps after quenching on numerous occasions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Welcome aboard Dave, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Also, lots of answers and info have a strong location component. I'd stay away from the 4340, it's too expensive for the return. It isn't special enough to make a special hammer. I make mine from an old Ford pickup axle, hardened and tempered to straw on the faces and blue at the eye. It's in the 1040-1050 range, I don't think it's in the 1060 range but maybe. I made the differential temper by doing the general temper in the shop toaster oven over a period of 2+ hours and then drew the eye with my hammer eye drift heated to high red and inserted in the hammer eye till I liked the color. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 I have had pretty good luck with 1040. I tested hardness on the last one i made at work one night and it came out at just over 50 Rockwell in an oil quench. It is also a pretty common steel to machine so if you know any machinists they may be able to get you a bar end or 2. The ones i got were 1 3/4" diameter and ~6" long or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Welcome from the Ozark Mountains. I have made some hammer heads out of sucker rod ends, which if memory serves is 4130, quenched in warm peanut oil and tempered back to blue. So far they have held up well, although I have to admit not using them a lot. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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